Melding ministry with medicine
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – For more than 120 years, Mennonites have realized Jesus’ call for holistic ministry through founding and serving in clinics and hospitals around the world, often through alternative service programs organized in response to military drafts. Many of these organizations became fixtures in the communities in which they were built, […]
Pursuing pigeons, catching vision of global church
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – The Youth Venture group bound for Barcelona, Spain, needed something more than rounds of Dutch Blitz played in airport terminals to break the ice between the newly acquainted participants. Their breakthrough came while trying to catch a pigeon. The six participants and two sponsors that made up the Youth […]
Mission in classroom, office and kitchen
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – Susanna Marie Duerksen Kleinsasser, who served as a long-term mission worker in India, died Oct. 27, 2018. She was 96. Kleinsasser was born in the village of Hotevilla on the Hopi Reservation of Arizona, May 24, 1922, to John and Susanna (Quiring) Duerksen, who served as mission workers in […]
Andean women lead the way in creating healthy boundaries
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Women church leaders, representing 10 Anabaptist conferences gathered Nov. 6-9 to learn about healthy boundaries for themselves and their communities. This regional workshop, sponsored by the Movement of Anabaptist Women Doing Theology from Latin America (MTAL), brought together women from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Most of the 33 […]
You, too, can become a leader
I served in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in Service Adventure right after high school. For me, it was a year of feeling the freedom to "find myself" in a new place with people who didn’t have a clue who I was. It was an exciting challenge to figure out how I wanted this new world to perceive […]
Mission worker forged a legacy of compassion and advocacy
NEWTON, Kansas (Mennonite Mission Network) – Alice Ruth Ramseyer, who served as a long-term mission worker in Japan, died Nov. 5, 2018. She was 89. Ramseyer was born in Kai Chow, China, Sept. 27, 1929, to S. F. "Floyd" and Sylvia (Tschantz) Pannabecker, who served as mission workers in northern China. In 1941, she attended […]
Coming to terms with the road not taken
A few weeks ago, I turned 40. The birthday itself was perfectly lovely, but the year to six months preceding it … was not so lovely. If it wasn’t such a cliché, I guess I might say I was suffering from a mild version of a midlife crisis. I was never in danger of abandoning […]
Academia Menonita Betania in Puerto Rico welcomes volunteers and celebrates 70 years
AIBONITO, Puerto Rico (Mennonite Education Agency/Mennonite Mission Network) — Students, families, friends and visitors from Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) and Mennonite Mission Network lined the basketball courts at Academia Menonita Betania on Saturday, Oct. 27, for music and dance performances to celebrate the school’s 70th anniversary. The festivities included a bounce house and swimming, and ended […]
Extending God’s table
I have a polo shirt from the 2003 Mennonite Church USA Assembly that depicts the message of God’s story. It says: “God’s table—Y’all come!” I have long resisted getting rid of the shirt, even though it doesn’t quite fit me very well anymore. I think I’ve kept it because I want to hang on to […]
Cloth diapers create happy babies, families, earth
Four and half years ago, Delicia Bravo sewed her first cloth diaper for her daughter, Aliyah. Now, Bravo makes and coordinates the Yura (Kichwa for plant or tree) Project, which produces cloth diapers for families seeking refuge in Ecuador. This country receives more refugees than any other in Latin America. "When we had Aliyah, […]
How to be ambitious
In the vast hellscape that is children’s television programming, one show always stood out to me as the most painful to watch. No greater love has a parent for his or her children than to watch Thomas the Tank Engine with them. Calliou is a close second … and then Yo Gabba Gabba. Like I […]
La Casa Grande – Large enough to embrace four continents
ELKHART, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – Mennonites from four continents worshiped and worked together in Benin in July. They came through different Mennonite Mission Network programs – some having served for more than 12 years; others participating in a 12-day experience. They joined their gifts and energies to provide personnel for the annual camp at […]